07 SEP

A rainy evening with Patra(Alu Vadi) #MyFriendAlexa

After a long wait, earth was blessed with heavenly showers. Sitting in the balcony, watching the rain falling on ground is a wonderful sight. And, this experience is enhanced by having a cup of tea and yummy snacks!

Having lived in Mumbai for few years, I enjoyed eating Patra(Alu Vadi) a lot. And, I had been craving for it since long time. With no one ready to serve it, I took it upon myself to make yummy Patra and relish it.

Patra or Alu vadi is made from colocasia leaves. Alu in Hindi means potato but in Marathi Alu means colocasia, hence it is named so. First step in making it was calling up my friend in Mumbai to ask for her mother’s authentic recipe. 😀

Ingredients:

Colocasia leaves – 8 or 10
Gram flour(Besan) – 2 cups
Ginger crushed
Green chilies crushed – 2 to 3
Garam masala – 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
Red chili powder – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt – as per taste
Tamarind paste/ Dry Mango powder(Aamchoor) – 2 tablespoon
Jaggery paste – ½ small cup
Sesame seeds – for frying
Mustard seeds – for frying
Coriander leaves – for garnishing

Preparation steps –

Wash the leaves by rinsing them thoroughly & drying them with a cloth.
After drying leaves, cut out the extra stem & thicker veins of the leaves to smoothen them.
Next step is to prepare a thick paste by mixing all ingredients in a bowl including –

Besan
Crushed ginger & green chili
Garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, salt,turmeric
Tamarind & jaggery paste
Ingredients for paste

Start applying the paste on leaves with the front of leaf facing upwards.
Continue adding leaves to the bundle with tips of alternate leaves opposite to each other.
Roll the stack of leaves firmly and continue adding paste to the roll with each turn.
Tie thread to the roll to keep it in place. Steam this roll in a pressure cooker/closed pan for 15 minutes. Remember to remove the whistle from cooker.
After 15 minutes of steaming, let the roll cool down for few minutes. This will help in hardening of the steamed leaves & paste.
Cut smaller slices of this bundle for shallow frying or deep frying. Some people might also like the steamed version of Patra.
For frying, heat some oil in pan; add sesame seeds & mustard seeds. Add the cut slices into the pan & fry till it turns golden brown.
Garnish it with fresh cut coriander leaves.
Patra is ready to be served. Relish the sweet-tangy crunchy Patra with chili sauce or tea.
Alu Vadi/Patra

My workarounds in the recipe-

I did not have tamarind at home, so used Mango powder (aamchoor) as a replacement.
For jaggery paste I had boiled jaggery pieces in hot water for 5 minutes.
I had used a rolling pin to smoothen out thicker veins of the leaves & few leaves were broken in the process. Need more practice for this!
If you do not like the sesame seeds, then they can be avoided while frying.

As I was preparing it for the first time, I took more than the estimated time of 30 minutes. Hope you like the recipe as much as I liked preparing & eating it.

Do share your thoughts about it – have you ever eaten it before or like it? Have I missed any steps in the preparation? What other evening snacks are your favorites? Looking forward to your response! If you liked this post, do shower us some love by commenting, liking & sharing the post.

(I am taking my Alexa Rank to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa at Blogchatter.)